Time to March Again?

Word from Sgt. Northen that the FOP is in the process of organizing a march around HQ as a show of no confidence in J-Fled. Wednesday, 15 September.

A cynical part of us says Shortshanks must have signed off on this.

The hopeful part thinks J-Fled is to be removed via some lateral transfer and the march will never step off.

Another cynical part of us wonders if if this is a red herring to discredit Northen, the SCC blog, Shaved and anyone else who has been working to keep the public informed as to the reality behind the fictions.

The realist wonders what the hell is going on?

Golden Boy Interviewed

Anyone else get the impression that this is just so much bullshit created in an attempt to justify an undeserved spot?

• Computer guru Brett Goldstein was stuck at Midway Airport on 9/11 when the second plane struck the World Trade Center.

  "We were watching CNN when it hit," Goldstein says of that terrible day in 2001. "It planted the seed in my mind."

  At the time, he was an executive with OpenTable, a restaurant-reservation tech firm.

  "I thought: 'When I am done with OpenTable, maybe it's time to do my duty.' "

All well and good. Duty is a fine motivation. Most of us came on this job to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We have no quarrel with that.

• Things have worked out well for Goldstein. On Aug. 16, the 36-year-old cop was promoted to director of the department's new Predictive Analytics Group, a $150,000-a-year job that puts him in charge of an increasingly important part of police work: forecasting where and when crimes will occur throughout the city.

"worked out well" is an understatement. A $150,000 job in under 4 years? That's just about unheard of even in the private sector. One would be justified in wondering how is that possible? But then, this is Chicago.

We're going to make a few observations about the article here. This is just a stupid quote here:

• Goldstein recalls doing pushups at the police academy and thinking: "Am I making a critical mistake here?"

  He had a lot to learn. His wife bought him a copy of Guns & Ammo magazine -- a new area of research for him. "I had no experience in that subject," he said, smiling.

Yeah, because being a cop is all about "Guns& Ammo." What an asinine piece of writing there by Frank Main.

• During his time on the street, Goldstein marveled at how a field-training officer with 18 years of experience could listen to calls on the police radio, watch where gang members were congregating and accurately predict when and where violence was going to "pop off."

Um....because the FTO spent 18 years doing his job? Maybe if the director spent a little more than his training cycles on the street, he'd learn how a street cop is able to be that "in tune" with his area of expertise. But that would take time, wouldn't it?

• In April, the department launched its predictive analytics system. Now, Goldstein provides top police officials every day with crime forecasts, which are compared with the "human intelligence" gathered by the police on the street.

  [...] He declines, though, to describe specific indicators of crime or talk about how accurate the department's computer forecasting system is. The department is still designing a system to evaluate the forecasts, he notes.

So we're still paying cops to gather "human intelligence" and compare it to the computer model? Wow. And accurate? If a crime occurs, you can say "the system predicted it." If it doesn't occur, you say, "we prevented it." It's the best of both worlds! Why get bogged down in actual statistics or numbers when someone with half a brain might trip you up? Just be like our fearful leader and claim 24,000 pod missions solved 4,500 crimes. Who's going to be able to challenge the numbers?

Here's the topper though:

• "It's quite a Chicago story," Irakliotis says of Goldstein. "He doesn't have any relatives in City Hall. He went through the trenches like any police officer. I'm really proud of him."

Training cycles = trenches. Remember that.

And no relatives at City Hall? Well, if your family is tied into a well-known foundation that provides the mayor and his supporters with thousands of dollars in political donations and charitable giving, you don't really need to have an "inside" connection to the Hall.

Somehow Frank Main missed that connection. Surprising.

4,500 Crimes Solved?

Once again, a number that materializes out of thin air:

• Police Supt. Jody Weis on Monday lauded the network of blue light cameras that sit high above Chicago's streets, claiming they've helped solve more than 4,500 crimes since the beginning of the year.

  "The police can't be everywhere every minute of the day, so the cameras play a critical role in preventing and solving crime," he said.

• Some might question the timing of Monday's press event. Last Friday, the website SecondCityCop, which has been highly critical of Weis and Mayor Richard Daley, blasted the POD cameras as "just another boondoggle that gave the appearance of police coverage."

  But Weis said the cameras have been the lead investigator in roughly 24,000 missions, and many involved with their implementation credit the mayor for pushing the surveillance network idea the past 10 years.

Whoops, there's that "insignificant" blog again. Funny how everything covered by J-Fled over the past few weeks has been stuff addressed here by ourselves and our insignificant readers.

But seriously, 24,000 missions? Does this guy even know how missions are run? Anytime someone moves a camera via remote control, they call it a mission and generate a BS number. You get an event number for going to the can for pete's sake. We could claim we get about a billion visitors a day here, and our number would be at least as legit as anything HQ puts out.

Again, cameras provide the illusion of police coverage. The last stat we got from the guys running the video cameras was 30% of the cameras are inoperable, storage is becoming a real issue and the servers are overloaded at two or three times capacity.

And the 4,500 crimes solved? We're talking mostly Class C and Ordinance violations (drinking on the public way, selling loose cigarettes, etc.) along with the assorted street level narcotics arrest.

Nothing that one hundred coppers couldn't have produced making an arrest every third day. And probably cheaper, too.

Violent 50 Hours

We guess the gang leaders didn't really take J-Fled's message to heart:

• Three men and two teenage boys were killed -- and at least 26 other people suffered violent injuries -- during an especially bloody 48-hour period. Both boys were shot and killed while attending block parties.

  Three of the murders, and many of the shootings, were on the West Side -- an area the Chicago Sun-Times reported top police officials are targeting gang members. Police confirmed Sunday that at least two of the West Side shootings were gang-related.

  The Sun-Times reported Sunday Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis and other top law enforcement officials met with reputed leaders of several West Side street gangs as part of the Chicago Gang Violence Reduction Initiative.

  When one of those gangs is involved in a killing, sources said, authorities plan to make their leaders' lives miserable, doing everything from towing their cars for parking violations, to ramping up parole visits, to pulling them over repeatedly for traffic stops.

We're sure that as soon as the west side comes out of its two year backlog, they'll get right on those ticket missions.

Range Targets (UPDATED)

As the Ranges have been running out of targets and ammunition is becoming as scarce as a fully manned watch in Area 1, we are looking to help everyone out as best we can. Since current law forbids us from mailing out ammunition, we decided maybe we could give everyone some paper targets to shoot at. Just download these and print them out for the range:

And for fund raising purposes, perhaps someone could print and sell these in full color with the proceeds going to a worthwhile cause:

We know we're going to get a bunch of humorless people claiming this is advocating some demented soul to take a shot at Shortshanks. Listen up - it's a paper training target of an unpopular individual, nothing more. It may inspire people to shoot better and as far as we're concerned, it's no different from burning someone in effigy or even from this target:That fact is we wish the mayor nothing but long life and happiness in all his endeavors, preferably from the confines of a Federal Correctional Institution, maybe that one in Oakdale, Louisiana.

UPDATED: As predicted, a whole bunch of clueless morons came out of the woodwork and accused us of promoting the shooting of the mayor, even though posted that was exactly what they'd do. We posted the tamer ones in the comment sections, but the deliberate misinterpretations, twisting and outright lies about what we posted went to the big internet toilet in the sky.

Where the Money Goes

Remember, everyone must make sacrifices:

• Working the lakefront last night and saw what appeared to be a Chevy Impala unmarked vehicle with police lights inside parked illegally. Also saw a handicapped parking placard in hanging from rear view window. Just for snicks...turned on the mars to see if I could get any takers and here comes someone. Identifies himself as a Deputy with Streets and San. So I ask why he is parked illegally and he says he is at the lake with his family and did I want him to move his vehicle. I said what is the handicap placard in the window for? Oh, that's his wife's. Nice, unmarked vehicle, not an M plate, registers to Enterprise Rental in Glen Ellyn...just taking family to lake for barbecue!!! So the garbage man gets a take home vehicle for him and his family! Where is all the money? Here it is!

Well, almost everyone.

Untouchables

Comment of the month, possibly the year:

• So they pull a gun - you pull a ticket book. They send one of yours to the hospital - you send one of theirs to the pound

Where do you people come from? That was brilliant!

And the preliminary totals for this weekend was 5 dead, 18 wounded. Someone better bring fresher doughnuts to the next gang meeting.

Bad Year Gets Worse

Ugly times:

• ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A standoff was under way Sunday in a tiny southeast Alaska village after a man fatally shot two of the village's four full-time police officers the night before, then barricaded himself in his home, local officials said.

  Hoonah police officers Tony Wallace and Matt Tokuoka died after the shooting late Saturday, said Bob Prunella, acting city administrator. Prunella didn't know what led to the shooting but said it was witnessed by Wallace's mother, who was visiting from Florida, and Tokuoka's wife and children.

God Bless Officers.

Have You Written to Bill Lately?

While Bill's case is at a standstill and Frank Main is using him as a political ping pong ball to divert attention from some truly asinine moves and decisions by Department and city administrators, it might be nice to remind him he isn't forgotten.

His address is in our right hand margin - print it exactly as shown. A quick note, a card, anything to remind Bill he is in our thoughts and prayers. We're sure Sgt. Northen will remind everyone what is and isn't allowed to be sent and what Bill may or may not need in the way of books, paper or material needs. Bill answers every letter sent.

The Lt. Saga Continues

The Huffington Post does a follow-up, keeping the story alive for the weekend news cycle. Quoting from the Tribune article:

• There is a serious First Amendment issue here," said Sheldon Nahmod, a constitutional law and civil rights professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law.
  

  Nahmod said free speech law should permit Andrews to post his comments without discipline as long as he's speaking as a public citizen and out of public concern, rather than simply airing personal grievances.

  "(Andrews) was griping about the morale of the Police Department in general, the support it's getting from its supervisors, superiors and from politicians, and that's not the same thing as a personal gripe," Nahmod said.

It sure seems that J-Fled and his minions have stepped in some serious crap here. And it ain't over yet as we're hearing.

No College?

Rumor sweeping the e-mails that one of the "merit" picks doesn't have the college to be promoted.

Does anyone have any idea how to go about verifying college transcripts? Personnel used to collect them and keep them on file, but is there any way to independently verify this info? Does the FOP keep a mirror record?

We wouldn't even know where to begin on this, and we're sure that's how Shortshanks and those in power would prefer it to be. Anyone have any ideas?

Interesting Excuse

This is humorous:

• OREM, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Police say investigators were led to the home of a suspect who was selling drugs on Monday.
  
  Police say an officer was following up on a drug investigation and found out that Marcos Ramirez was possibly dealing Marijuana.
  
  After the officer obtained a search warrant for Ramirez's house, the officer found marijuana, a stolen gun, pills and drug paraphernalia inside.
  
  Ramirez was taken to the Utah County Jail and police say his explanation for selling the marijuana was to, "...save up so I can pay for the police academy."

Question - other Academies pay their recruits, right? Or are we unique that way?

"Knock It Off" Results (UPDATE)

In the very district J-Fled held his "Hill Street Blues" event (starring J-Fled as Frank Furillo), not one, but two homicides occur:

• The burned body of an unidentified woman was found in an alley in the East Garfield Park neighborhood officials said.

  Chicago police were called to the 2800 block of West Washington Avenue at about 4:30 a.m. after the woman's body was found in an alley, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].

  She said Chicago police are conducting a death investigation.

Because people just spontaneously burst into flame on the west side.

• A 23-year-old man was fatally wounded tonight on a West Side street while talking to another man, who also was wounded in the shooting.

  About 6:30 p.m. the two men were standing on the 4400 block of West Wilcox Street when they heard shots fired from an unknown location, according to preliminary information from Chicago police.

Sounds like a gauntlet has been thrown.

UPDATE: And another gang/gunfire homicide (still in 011)

• A 15-year-old boy who was shot and killed Saturday night in the Humboldt Park neighborhood may have been struck by stray gunfire from a person chasing and shooting at someone else, police said.

  Police responded at 8:39 p.m. to the 800 block of North Harding Avenue and found the boy with a gunshot wound to the chest, police News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines said.

  It may be that someone armed with a weapon was chasing and intending to shot at someone else and opened fire but instead struck the teen, who was sitting in a chair, police News Affairs [...] said.

That's it! SOMEONE is going to be on Double Secret Probation before the day is out. So says J-Fled. WARRIORS!!!!!!

Here We Go!

They looked bad.

Very bad.

Very long season bad.

Hockey camp opens when?

Budget Busters

Not that our regular readers would notice, but we've had a troll hanging around these parts for a few years. We filter out most of his nonsense, accusing us of being Republicans (we are), a Tea Party front blog (we've never written a single word on the Tea Party), and bigots (huh?). He also thinks we get our marching orders from Rush Limbaugh (never heard his show), Glenn Beck (never seen his show, haven't read his books) and whomever else is leading the anti-Obama charge.

He also thinks Bush/Cheney bankrupted this country with the Iraq War. Here's an interesting graphic from the Congressional Budget Office:

Notice the first upward swing in 2008 when democrats took over Congress and wrote the budget? And then when they took the White House in 2009? Those are TRILLION dollar deficits. And it isn't going to get any better until the 2011 elections go the other direction. But hey, keep up with the liberal fantasies of Bush breaking the economy and sending the country down the road to ruin.

UPDATE: It's so fun to tease the lib-tards. Here are some more fun facts for them:

• Obama's stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War -- more than $100 billion (15%) more.
• Just the first two years of Obama's stimulus cost more than the entire cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.
• Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2% of all federal spending while it lasted.
• Iraq War spending was not even one quarter of what we spent on Medicare in the same time frame.
• Iraq War spending was not even 15% of the total deficit spending in that time frame. The cumulative deficit, 2003-2010, would have been four-point-something trillion dollars with or without the Iraq War.
• The Iraq War accounts for less than 8% of the federal debt held by the public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion).
• During Bush's Iraq years, 2003-2008, the federal government spent more on education that it did on the Iraq War. (State and local governments spent about ten times more.)

And to those claiming we only link to right leaning sites, we can only say, "Um...duh?"

Lapses in Ethics

This explains a lot:

• According to the list put out by the department the following members have not completed mandatory ethics training:
  
  Jody Weis, Ernest Brown, James Jackson

We're sure they'll be having their minions take that pesky test for them right away.

Or wouldn't that be ethical?

Knock That Off!

Holy Shit....someone tell us this didn't really happen?

• When Labar "Bro Man" Spann rolled into Garfield Park Conservatory in his wheelchair, he thought he was headed to a routine parole meeting.

  Then, he saw Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis, other top law enforcement officials and the reputed leaders of several West Side street gangs.

  The meeting, it turned out, was anything but routine.

  The lawmen were there to deliver a message.

  "They said they would get us if we don't stop the killing," Spann said.

Seriously?

• A police spokesman declined to comment on the under-the-public's-radar gathering, which was part of something called the Chicago Gang Violence Reduction Initiative.

  "Every law enforcement agency was there to show we're on the same team," one law enforcement source said. "It's a new approach. We're telling these guys: 'You got to cut the violence -- or else. The first gang that kills somebody, we will go full barrel after your whole gang.' "

  When one of those gangs is involved in a killing, sources said, authorities plan to make their leaders' lives miserable, doing everything from towing their cars for parking violations, to ramping up parole visits, to pulling them over repeatedly for traffic stops.

Gee, let's just get it on the public record that we are suspending Constitutional protections and engaging in an organized campaign of harassment against certain individuals based on their past or suspected criminal records. We certainly hope every officer involved in this public record disaster has their house in trust.

ATTENTION IDIOTS - There is a reason the United States of America has a public policy that it doesn't meet or negotiate with terrorists. It gives terrorists legitimacy. It gives them recognition. It gives them a seat at the table. What this meeting has done is grant the gangs exactly that. It is also a tacit admission (and don't think any of them missed it) that the Chicago Police Department isn't in control of the streets.

Someone get a mop - Loevy & Loevy, Flint Taylor and countless other bottom feeders just started drooling so hard they passed out.

Any Update?

IAD statement was taken yesterday:

• A Chicago Police lieutenant will appear before the Internal Affairs Division Friday, after writing a blog that slammed Supt. Jody Weis and the policies of the department.

  Lt. John Andrews is being called before the disciplinary body for the commentary on his blog, “The Adventures of a Highway Road Runner.” He titled it “A City at War with Itself: Chicago — Fast Tracking to Anarchy (Understanding the Organizational Paralysis of the CPD and the Mission to Recovery).”

  The posting sharply criticizes police Supt. Jody Weis, calls the city’s “power elite” and some elements within the Police Department “corrupt,” and says police officers have been weakened to the point where criminals no longer fear them.

We assume he wasn't removed from his position and didn't relinquish his star, shield and ID. 011 District readers, any info?

In a Nutshell

This about sums it up (Jack Higgins, Chicago Sun Times):



J-Fled has completely lost the ability to command at this point. When you've been "tooned," you've pretty much lost the battle.

This thing is going to be posted on every flat surface in every police station in Chicago if it isn't already. We've already run off about fifty copies (at the library of course, or currency exchange, we can't remember). If someone takes it down, it's going right back up.

And it isn't going to stop.

Choose Your Side

OK, so who has the better case?

Lieutenant John Andrews, who writes an essay, signs his name to it, gets administratively served with charges in an attempt to shut him up, declines to play that game and goes on to wage an all out media blitz to support his own rights to Free Speech in a quixotic attempt to bring some dignity back to this job....

Or J-Fled, who goes on a radio show that usually gauges which way the political winds are blowing before taking a stand on something as simple as supporting Freedom of Speech regardless of who is saying it, and who refuses to take even a single phone call in case a member of the Policy Group can't get in to slobber about what a great job J-Fled is doing?

You know, the way J-Fled and his sack washers are fighting to stifle dissent in the Department really makes us wonder how badly they are fudging the crime numbers. You'd think the smart play would be to ignore the lieutenant and tout the crime "reduction" that is supposedly going on. We're getting mixed messages here.

FOP Hops on Board Bandwagon (UPDATED)

They've posted a petition on-line for anyone to download, sign and send back to the FOP:

• Lieutenant John Andrews of the Chicago Police Department recently expressed his views regarding the operations of and conditions within the Chicago Police Department. Lt. Andrews is now facing disciplinary actions for expressing these views.
  
  Whether you agree with Lt. Andrews' views or not there is a more important issue at stake. That issue is the ability to freely express your views in writing as guaranteed by the First Amendment.
  
  Please print and distribute the following First Amendment Rights petition. Petitions should be returned to Rich Aguilar at FOP Unit 541 via police mail. All petitions will be hand carried to the Superintendent.

Given that there are a few thousand retirees, hundreds of officers from outside the CPD and more than a few civilians who don't have access to the police mail, we're going to take a step that the FOP didn't consider and encourage those readers to support Lieutenant Andrews by using the US Postal Service or a fax to send their signed petitions to the FOP:

• Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge 7
  1412 W. Washington Blvd.
  Chicago, IL 60607-1821
  
  or Fax:312-733-1367

Send this out to all your friends.

UPDATE: Evidently, the Lieutenants Association had this petition up a few days earlier and has been collecting petitions from their members already. The FOP simply changed the wording in the "Closing" section to "We as officers..." instead of "We as supervisors..."

Funny thing though - the Sergeants website doesn't have a single post about this that we can find. The Sergeants union was the only group that actually came out and advised their members that they were NOT supporting the march around City Hall. That was under the currently indicted president though.

The Continuing Saga

As noted here yesterday, the Tribune has jumped into the Lt. Andrew's fray:

• Chicago police Lt. John Andrews knew that he was nudging a hornet's nest when he posted an essay on his personal blog criticizing the Police Department as beleaguered by a manpower shortage, low morale and public perceptions of rising crime.
  
  Last week, he finally got stung.
  
  The 25-year police veteran, who works as a watch commander at the West Side Harrison District, was notified that he was being investigated by the Internal Affairs Division for bringing "discredit" to the department for comments in his 3,072-word essay, decrying everything from internal cronyism and public apathy to emboldened criminals and pay disparities.

And The Huffington Post links not only the Lieutenant's essay, but touches on the James Carlini essay about unreported "wildings" downtown, the recent home invader turned into worm food, and this humble insignificant blog.

Hopefully, the initial splash continues to cause ripples for some time yet.

Predicting? Or Profiling?

Los Angeles, California:

• Predictive policing is rooted in the notion that it is possible, through sophisticated computer analysis of information about previous crimes, to predict where and when crimes will occur. At universities and technology companies in the U.S. and abroad, scientists are working to develop computer programs that, in the most optimistic scenarios, could enable police to anticipate, and possibly prevent, many types of crime.

  Some of the most ambitious work is being done at UCLA, where researchers are studying the ways criminals behave in urban settings.

  One, who recently left UCLA to teach at Santa Clara University near San Jose is working to prove he can forecast the time and place of crimes using the same mathematical formulas that seismologists use to predict the distribution of aftershocks from an earthquake.

  Another builds computer simulations of criminals roving through city neighborhoods in order to better understand why they tend to cluster in certain areas and how they disperse when police go looking for them.

Well, it's nice to see the CPD might be stealing from the left coast instead of the right coast for once. That being said, that last paragraph sounds suspiciously like profiling based on neighborhood populations, they're just calling it something else.

We'll bet a shiny new dime the new "Predictive Analysis Unit" is all over this witchcraft.

Humorous Narrative; Big Fallout

Post Altered:

• Read update below
  

The narrative progresses mightily from there, touching on a 16 bag weed arrest, cooking school, and a #2 Church's chicken meal. It is a humorous case report, but supposedly led to a mass dumping in the district of occurrence. You have to be careful about what goes on official reports.

UPDATE: At the request of the involved officers, we've removed the narrative. If you haven't seen it at a District near you, it's out there. Look around. We may have more to say later.

Stop the Presses!!

A POD arrest! Alert the media!

• Two teens were charged today with the break-in of an auto in the Bronzeville neighborhood that was viewed by a Chicago police officer monitoring a POD security camera.

  On Wednesday at about 7:40 p.m., a police officer monitoring a POD security camera at Chicago Police Headquarters witnessed two youths breaking into a vehicle parked on the 3700 block of South State Street, according to a police news release.

  A 15-year-old boy heaved an object through the vehicle's side window allowing a second 15-year-old boy to reach in and remove a back pack, police said.

  The officer who witnessed the incident immediately notified the Office of Emergency Communications. Utilizing an accurate description of the suspects relayed via the dispatcher, Wentworth District officers in the area located the suspects near the scene.

Thanks goodness that $20 million line item was finally justified. We were worried for a minute that the cameras were just another boondoggle that gave the appearance of police coverage while not doing a damn thing to alleviate manpower shortages.

Funny Stuff

Priceless:

• A gang member firing at rivals shot and killed his friend with the same weapon he had shown off to him minutes earlier, Cook County prosecutors said Thursday afternoon.

  Police said Darius Murphy, 21, was a Black P. Stone like Jauan Oneal and that Oneal had been sitting in the parked Pontiac with Murphy and three others in Back of the Yards when bullets were exchanged last May.

  But prosecutors Thursday described Murphy only as Oneal’s “friend” and said that Oneal, 22, was shooting at a moving van in the 5100 block of South Laflin in the early morning hours of May 30.

  Murphy, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the Pontiac, was shot in the head by one of Oneal’s stray bullets while a Memorial Day party was taking place on the block, authorities said.

The clearance numbers go up by one while the ranks of people "turning their life around" lose a promising member.

And Speaking of Morale...

Has anyone seen any trace of that "morale survey" that J-Fled had commissioned at taxpayer expense?

You know, the one that cost a lieutenant her inside spot when she said J-Fled was obligated to release it, no matter if the results showed something like 83% of the respondents thought J-Fled was a J-Failure?

The one that J-Fled said if it showed he was the cause of low morale, he'd leave?

We heard that Drew Peterson was in charge of hiding that thing, too. It sure would be interesting if it surfaced sometime soon.

More Hits at J-Fled

Fox News continues to slap J-Fled around.

Word is the Tribune is picking up the bat later today to have a few whacks at the J-Fled pinata.

Now how about a few of the other retired bosses have a go at J-Fled? You know, the guys and gals that got launched out of their spots when the fed-train rolled into town.

Laughable "Merit" List

The J-Fled hits keep coming:

• A Chicago Police officer who spent three months as a driver for Supt. Jody Weis and another officer who served four years on Mayor Daley’s bodyguard detail snared two of nine new merit promotions to the rank of sergeant.
  
  The promotion of former Weis driver Floyd Goldsmith and former mayoral bodyguard Jack Dedore has shined the light on a merit promotion process that, critics contend, is rife with politics.

This is completely laughable:

• Weis, who has the final say on merit promotions, insisted that clout played no role in either promotion.
  He called Dedore a “natural leader” who compiled the highest score of all the nominees ranked by a Merit Board comprised of four deputy superintendents and two assistant superintendents.
  
  Dedore now serves as senior investigator on an organized crime case targeting gangs and narcotics that’s expected to come to a head shortly.
  
  “There was no clout involved in this at all. I never got a call from the mayor’s office. All Sam [Roti] did was what all our commanders do,” he said.
  
  Weis said he was so impressed with Goldsmith’s “phenomenal” inter-personal skills, he sent his driver back to Narcotics last month with a mandate to find someone to recommend him for a merit promotion.
  
  “I asked him, `What do you want to do — be my driver or be a sergeant leading men? If you want to be a leader, quit driving me, get back in the field and find a commander to put you in. I promise I’ll look hard at your resume,” the superintendent said.

Go read the comments - all sorts of readers rip into the entire process, J-Fled, Shortshanks, etc. "Merit" is a complete joke. The best comment of all (in our opinion)?

• He ain't heavy, he's my driver

Now comes word from a source or three that someone on the "merit" list didn't even take the promotion exam. We'd certainly hope they wouldn't be that stupid, but it happened before on a Lieutenant list. They got caught that time, too.

Remember, Crime is Down!

Meanwhile, in reality land, seven shot on a Wednesday evening:

• At least seven people were wounded Wednesday in separate shootings throughout the city, officials said.

  The shooting that caused the most serious wounds happened about 4:40 p.m. in the Gage Park neighborhood, where an 18-year-old man was shot in the face, police said.

Click the linked article for the complete list.

Court - We Can't Produce the Surveys...

...because we destroyed them all!

• Detailed questionnaires filled out by jurors in the trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich were destroyed after the jury had been picked, a clerk for U.S. District Judge James Zagel said Wednesday.

  The surprise disclosure came as the Tribune was delivering a letter to Zagel from its lawyer asking that the questionnaires be made public.

  Zagel's clerk, contacted last week by a Tribune reporter about the release of the questionnaires, e-mailed Wednesday that the questionnaires couldn't be released because they no longer physically existed.

  The forms typically ask a long list of questions — from what they read to any political bias they might have — so lawyers on both sides get a better feel for prospective jurors, as well as to limit the questions that must be asked in open court during jury selection.

  The release of the questionnaires during former Gov. George Ryan's trial proved crucial for the Tribune to discover during deliberations in 2006 that two jurors had concealed arrest records. The jurors were dismissed, two alternates added and the jury restarted deliberations.

So the one piece of evidence that might have exposed why a juror who was appointed to a state position, probably by Blago's people, was allowed to sit on a jury deciding the fate of the former governor was shredded months ago.

Golly, the coincidences just keep piling up.

Open Letter from Jim Maurer

Reposted via SCRIBD - this thing is 8 pages long:



UPDATE: No disrespect to the former Chief, but we ran this thing through the spellchecker and made a minor adjustment or three. Everything else is as Chief Maurer wrote it.

UPDATE II: We're taking out the comments that are only ripping on Maurer for his grammatical structure. Yes, he's a little rough around the edges with the English language, but what's important is the message, not the structure. We know what he means and we're sure 99% of the cops reading know it, too. Don't lose sight of the big picture boys and girls - the rank-and-file is getting support that we haven't had in ages.

Lt. Andrews on Roe Conn

Live now on 890 AM.

Lieutenant Story Grows

Channel 2 did a story this morning.

So did Channel 5.

PoliceOne.com and THEE Rant (NYPD) have picked it up.

Frank Main at the Sun Times did a month old story about the Cozzi decision in a lame attempt at deflecting ongoing controversy.

Word is more may be on the way. Keep their feet to the fire.

Airport 80?

Supposedly, the bids are about to come out sending up to 80 people from Patrol to the airports. The word is currently 40 bid, 40 management.

Pardon us, but where the hell are we finding 80 bodies for the airports? We just got how many recruits? 86 or so? Now we're taking 80 bodies and sending them to the airport?

We know we're short. We know Maurer embarrassed Shortshanks. We know that O'Hare is running midnights with one single officer some evenings. We also know that the Districts, already undermanned by thousands, can little afford 80 more bodies. We need a hiring wave and that ain't coming any time soon either.

We're robbing Peter to pay Paul once again. And Peter's broke.

"Victim" of Police Shooting

This is supposed to be the previous arrest of the home invader currently taking a dirt-nap courtesy of an off-duty copper:

• Tinley Park police have caught a man who, along with another man, posed as a cable TV worker, then bound and gagged residents in a Tinley Park home last year.
  
  Ramiz Othman, 28, of the 3500 block of Columbus Drive, was charged with home invasion late Friday evening. He appeared in bond court Saturday, where a judge ordered Othman be held without bond.

The article is from November of 2008, but is certainly appears that he didn't learn anything from his previous arrests. We'd say he learned something this time though.

Investigation Going Viral?

FOX News has an interview with the Lieutenant:

• Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis is facing questions about a very critical blog written by a police lieutenant.

  The author, John Andrews, is now under investigation by internal affairs, and knows he very well could lose his job for publicly criticizing those running the department. He minces no words in his blog or in his defense of it.

  "We have lost control of maintaining social order in many parts of Chicago, we are undermanned, we're wore out, staffing is at dangerous levels, leadership is absent and some of those who claim to be our leaders are incompetent," Andrews said.

We don't know about any of our readers, but we're forwarding this to everyone we can think of. This has the potential to go national.

First Amendment Investigation

We certainly hope the Department has been keeping up with all the required notifications that are in the General Orders regarding First Amendment investigations. After all, the Consent Decree put in place after assorted Red Squad investigations and such are pretty clear and carry the weight of the Federal Courts. Because what we read in the Sunday Sun Times makes us think IAD and J-Fled have stepped in some deep shit:

• On July 19, Lt. John R. Andrews made a hard decision. He'd had enough. He'd been silent long enough. After careful thought, he pressed a button on his home computer, posting online a 3,000-word critique of the Police Department with the academic-sounding title, "A City at War with Itself: Chicago -- Fast Tracking to Anarchy (Understanding the Organizational Paralysis of the CPD and the Mission to Recovery)."

  He described a department "twisted into paralysis by organizational decimation, incompetent leadership, self-serving politics and corruption" singling out for particular scorn Supt. Jodi Weis' appointment last month of Anthony Carothers, brother of disgraced former Ald. Isaac Carothers, as commander of the Englewood District.

As it turns out, Lt. Andrews was prescient by a few weeks, seeing as how the named commander turns out to have been the subject of at least one FBI memo alleging questionable actions. But it reeks of political desperation that the Internal Affairs Division, at the behest of J-Fled or Shortshanks, would initiate a political witch hunt on an officer who posted something from his own computer. With an election on the horizon? How could you interpret this as anything but an abuse of government power?

And while we question the use of Neil Steinberg as a conduit, given his anti-police credentials and personal background, he gives the Lieutenant wide latitude to make his case and quotes the head of the Lieutenants Union and others. It's framed as a First Amendment issue and we're glad to see the Lieutenant making a stand on it. He e-mailed us this weekend before the column hit the stands and we'll quote the pertinent portion of his letter in full:

• 1. I am committed 100% to the course of action that I have under taken... come hell or high water. There will be no retreat, no apologies, no retractions, no silencing and no submission. If the CPD would prefer to "kill the messenger" rather than address the problems that are undermining our effectiveness as conservators of the peace... if this is the hill that they choose to fight on... all I can say is "gun up and let's go."
  
  I stand ready to be mocked, discredited, suspended and terminated for what I believe in my heart of hearts is the right thing to do... and will continue with my God-given abilities to work with other like-minded people to achieve the change we most desperately need. This is not about John Andrews or for John Andrews... it is about the men and women of the Chicago Police Department who bravely serve this city with honor... and ultimately the citizens of Chicago that so desperately are depending on the Chicago Police Department to help keep them safe.
  
  We are duty-bound to both and will no longer be silenced and beaten into submission and ineffectiveness by corrupt and dishonorable people - inside or outside our organization. We have found our voice and will help others to find theirs (the 8th Habit). We will be successful in our honorable endeavors. The CPD will rise from the ruins of corrupt and incompetent leadership. We will learn from these mistakes and become the better for it. I firmly believe this... and will dedicate all of my energy with relentless fervor so that others can believe and act to make it so.
  
  2. No matter what may become of me, although I may stand on that hill alone, I know in my heart the spirit of the honest, hard working members of the CPD... and other passionate Chicagoans... stand with me. I am both humbled and grateful for their kinds words and support. To my brothers and sisters of the CPD... Stand tall and proud as you serve this city with honor and dignity! Don't allow ANYONE to take that from you! In the moments of choice - do what is right!
  
  We are the Chicago Police Department!
  
  May God bless and keep safe the honorable people who serve this great organization.

Good luck Lieutenant.

No More List? No More Tests?

The City is just about to burn through the remnants of the exam they gave from four years ago:

• A new class of 120 Chicago Police recruits will start six months of training Sept. 1, honoring Mayor Daley's promise to hire more officers -- but depleting the city's hiring list.

What's left to do?

• The city, which offered the last police entrance exam in 2006, is at a crossroad. The city could give a new exam but would have to wait months to award a testing contract, then develop, administer and grade it. Or the city could scrap the test in favor of an application-only process.

  The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that the department was considering ditching the exam to bolster minority hiring, save test preparation costs and avert costly legal battles that have dogged the exam process for decades. If the process is opened to all who apply and meet the minimum education and residency requirements, Chicago would stand alone among major cities.

Or, god forbid, they could give a legit exam for the first time in recorded history. Just because it's good enough for bosses to be morons, halfwits and idiots, doesn't mean that it's a good idea for coppers to be ignorant fools. We've got enough of those that have slipped through the cracks already via crooked hiring, Academy incompetence, and a broken FTO program. Should the City decide to make this leap into the abyss, what would follow would be the wholesale destruction of the Department within 2 years.

More "Merit List" Questions

More and more rumors popping up:

• O/T but very interesting... I was told 2nite that a confidential CR# has been obtained regarding the "clout" sergeant's list. Heard that J-Fled blew a gasket over the clout list after it was published...the one published was different from the one which he had signed off on. Now the question to be answered is Who made the changes after he signed off on it??? Anyone else hearing anything like this?

Well bet it's EXACTLY the one that Masters Masters Masters signed off on though, because that's the one that Shortshanks said was the good one.

Go On! Go On!

This is good stuff:

• This ladies and gentlemen IS the final nail in the J-Jag coffin. SHAKMAN MODERATORS set this up to finally kill the way promotions are handed out among city workers, the city has taken the bait hook line and sinker and J-Fled is in mucho hot water. This administration will go down in flames and October is a nice start.
  -crime is through the roof,national attention
  
  -daley snubs shakman moderators,by suggesting that the decree be lifted because the city is legit
  
  -Weis is a kool-aide a holic who could have done great things but
  fucked up royale.
  
  -Weis has irrepairably tarnished the FBI rep.
  
  -Morale is non-existant
  
  -law suits against J-Fled are costing and will cost the city millions.
  
  ...shall I go on...?

Even if it isn't 100% on, it's still great fun.

And He's Still Alive!

Highway copper, just driving along, minding his own business:



He almost cleared the bridge. Well, not really. And doesn't that one guy look like Drew Peterson?

Officers Injured, Suspect Dead (UPDATED)

WBBM was saying more than one person was transported to the hospital, but only one is named as a Department member so far. Here's the BreakingNews report:

• A Chicago police officer was struck by a vehicle this morning in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the city's South Side, officials said.
  
  The incident happened shortly after midnight in an alley on the 9100 block of South Halsted Street, said Police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines.
  
  The officer was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, officials said. There was no immediate information available about the officer's condition or the circumstances of the incident.

UPDATE: More info - THREE cops hit by car, one offender dead, one wounded:

• Three Chicago Police officers were struck by a vehicle this morning during a chase that resulted in one suspect being shot dead at the scene in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the city's South Side.

  Shortly after midnight, two officers were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, said Police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines. Information about the third officer was not immediately available.

  Chicago Fire Department spokesman Quention Curtis said paramedics transported four people from the 9100 block of South Halsted Street to Christ Medical Center. One person was in serious-to-critical condition and three others were in fair-to-serious condition, he said. The officers' injuries were not life-threatening, Gaines said.

And the refrain that is fast becoming the new big thing:

• Bradley added he was "shocked" by the gunfire. "This is relatively a quiet area," he said.

Get well soon Officers!

Where's the Tape?

We caught the tail end of this report, but we can't find it in the FOX Chicago archives. It seems an overly liberal media member was interviewing the relatives of the recently deceased home invader attempting to gin up some sympathy for the offender. They attempted to paint the shithead as some sort of Jean Valjean type character (IR #24601) who was only stealing to feed his family.

What the fuck? That doesn't justify shit. They'd have better luck if he was shoplifting bread or something from a local grocery story - but that still wouldn't make it right. Breaking into a home means he isn't searching for food, he's searching for something expensive and portable to pawn or sell.

And it gets even better according to a reader:

• He was charged with home invasion and an additional charge as habitual felon; trial was to begin next week. Home invasion was in Tinley Park. All I have to say is good riddance!! He was out on bail. Shame on the judge for setting bail so low!!

Here's a suggestion for any of the media trollers coming around here. How about you go to court once in a while? See what bails the judges are setting. See what gets rejected for no apparent reason. See the habitual and truly low life life scumbags who are nothing but a drain on society walking out to inflict more pain and suffering on people.

Maybe Ben Javorsky can get something going.

CPD v CFD Baseball

CPD won 8-5. But this little observation from attendees:

• CPD Baseball beat CFD Sat[urday] at the Cell 8-5 thanks to a Grand Slam in the 8th inning. Great game but one question...why did J-Fled sit on the fire side the whole game???

Maybe he...

1. ...didn't know (likely)
2. ...didn't care (more likely)
3. ...wanted to spread the bad vibes to CFD (most likely)
4. ...Masters Masters Masters told him to sit there (ding!)
   

Eh, who cares. We didn't want him sitting by us anyway.

Another Gator?

They're breeding!

• For years Sararose Krenger and her family joked that alligators lived near their Ravenswood Gardens' home which is along the Chicago River.

  Today, Krenger, 22, and her family were on their boat traveling on the river when their joke became a reality. They spotted a three-to-five-foot alligator basking in the sun along the bank of the North Branch of the Chicago River just north of Belmont Avenue.

We do recall a sizable number of piranhas being part of a "lagoon stocking project" back in the early 1970's on the west and north sides. Some of our older readers may remember the characters involved. Unfortunately, the brutal Chicago winters decimated the tropical predators. Still, one can always hope that either evolution produces a hardier alligator or global warming expands the habitat range of man-eating reptiles and fish.

Manager Resigns

No, not J-Fled. At least not yet:

• It was a day of mixed emotions that began with the Cubs announcing Piniella was retiring effective Monday to return home to Florida to care for his ailing 90-year-old mother, Margaret, and ended with an ugly 16-5 loss to the Braves.

Typical Cubs. And even Lou leaving can't inspire them to put forth the effort to win a game.

As someone said, the owners aren't going to be improving the team until the seats aren't being filled. In the Blackhawks case, it took a procession of losing years, thousands of empty seats and the death of the owner to change fortunes. The Cubs have the losing years down pat and a new owner. If season ticket holders start returning their tickets or refusing to renew? They might actually win something this century.

Almost Ten Shootings a Day

And the Tribune calls it "typical"

• The bullets flew in neighborhoods from Roseland to Rogers Park, hitting victims ranging in age from 72 to just 1. The overwhelming majority of them were young men. The bullets nicked eyebrows and ankles. They also pierced whole communities, such as historic Woodlawn.
  
  More than 300 people were shot in Chicago last month. At least 33 of them have died.
  
  Some victims made headlines, like 13-year-old Robert Freeman Jr., who was fatally shot on his block while hanging out with friends. The city paused when two Chicago police officers — Michael Bailey and Thor Soderberg — were gunned down in uniform within weeks of each other.

And they state we are actually down 8 shootings from last July. It sure doesn't feel that way and we know our counts significantly upward trending. Someone isn't keeping up the pace here. Let's step it up people! And folks, too!

Da Bears

Gee, the Bears have two preseason games under their belts and we can only think of one thing to say:


Is it hockey season yet?

You may dissect the Bears latest preseason effort here.

We'll Take Two of These

Kass talking about an aldercreature putting the screws to Shortshanks:

• Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, has two terrifying words for Mayor Richard Daley:

  Forensic Audit.

  It may not sound sexy. But having former IRS agents go through two decades worth of insider political deals and revealing it all to a tax base of voters that has been bled dry is something Daley and his boys would hate.

It doesn't have to sound sexy - but numbers don't lie. Numbers put Capone behind bars. Numbers could bring down Daley and Madigan and Burke and a dozen other assholes for a long long time.

This guy is very close to getting our votes.

Police Limit

If this isn't part of your weekly reading, it should be:

Word is, someone is trying to get a CR number on these characters - bringing discredit and all that jazz.

And how is it someone can get a CR number on a lieutenant writing his own opinions, yet J-Fled can make known sexual harassers, dope/gun runners, liars and thieves into exempts with out anyone raising the stink of "brings discredit to the Department"?

Another "Innie"

And once again, what J-Fled might call "unpreventable:"

• He was a father of five; a former city worker whose friends say he was an outstanding man. But early Friday morning, Anthony Anglin was shot and killed in his home by masked gunmen.
  
  Anglin was shot to death during a home invasion inside his Morgan Park home in the 10800 block of South Sangamon Street. Neighbors described the 72-year-old father of five as a man loved by all.
  
  Friends were stunned that violence has touched what they call their close-knit, crime-free community.

Crime free? Not according to others in the neighborhood:

• "He was a family man, raised his children, good neighbor, they were church goers. The salt of the earth," said Rev. Janet P. Moore, a longtime family friend. "This is awful that we live in this community, which is supposed to be a pretty nice community but the criminal element has just gone wild."

That seems to be happening a lot lately. It's almost there aren't any police to protect the decent neighborhoods anymore.

Another Happy Ending

Suburban police chase ends here. Ends happily, too:

• A police chase that started in south suburban Calumet City ended when the vehicle being pursued crashed into a fence near a Far South Side McDonald's early Friday, killing two people and critically injuring three others.

  The incident began when south suburban Calumet City police spotted a car that was reported stolen on the South Side of Chicago, and began chasing it after one occupant reportedly "flashed" a weapon, according to police.

  At 1:30 a.m., the chase ended with the pursued vehicle crashing into a fence near a McDonald¹s at West 114th and South Halsted streets

Question - since the driver appears to have lived, is he charged with two counts of homicide? And do the homicides count against Chicago totals? And did the computer model predict the two homicides? Hmmmm.

Good Guy: 1, Bad Guy: Dead.

A homeowner who happens to be a Chicago Police Officer defends himself:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer shot and killed an armed intruder who kicked in a basement door at his West Garfield home on the South Side this morning, officials said.
  
  The officer was calling 911 sometime after 8:45 a.m. to report that he thought someone was trying to break into his house in the 5500 block of South Normandy when he was confronted by an intruder "with something in his hand," said Eddie Welch, Wentworth Area deputy chief of patrol. The officer, who was not identified, fired his service weapon several times, killing the intruder, Welch said.
  
  The officer had been at home recuperating from an injury, Welch said. Earlier, he had twice heard someone knocking on his door, ringing the bell and later knocking on a window but didn't think much of it, Welch said.
  
  The officer went back to bed but then heard what sounded like someone breaking in. The intruder had kicked in a basement door, Welch said, adding that police recovered a weapon belonging to him.

We were listening to WBBM-AM this afternoon and they were reporting that no charges would be filed against the officer.

Good job, Officer.

Lying to the Feds

Didn't a former governor just get convicted of that?

Now there's a rumor popping up in two or three comment sections about a certain son and brother of convicted felons, who never passed a promotional exam, who just got a gold star mere weeks ago and who just had a "merit" pick made, is about to be stripped for ... wait for it ... lying to the feds!

Hey J-Fled? You still think you're part of Daley's insider crew? You're nothing but a fall guy. Granted, a expensive fall guy, but a fall guy nonetheless.

There's a bus leaving town at 1315 hours today. Be under it.

UPDATE: And here it is!

• A few days before the promotion, police Supt. Jody Weis asked the FBI if anything in Anthony Carothers' background should bar him from being promoted and was told no, sources said.

  But after the promotion, the police department received an FBI memo related to an interview of Anthony Carothers by federal agents, according to the sources, who said they were unable to discuss the memo's contents.

  Chicago Police officials spoke to Anthony Carothers about the memo Thursday afternoon, sources said. He will continue to serve as commander of the high-crime Englewood District during the review.

So a couple of options here:

1. Carothers is stripped of his commander spot, he starts using Trahanas' old office at Call Back, the reverends raise holy hell and then he comes back/is fired, or...
2. He's left in place as a mole.

Way to pick your command staff there Jody!

Uncontrolled Media

There is no doubt in our minds that media in general has a liberal slant to it. It's pretty much an established fact. There is also little doubt in our minds that Shortshanks has the editors and program directors of Chicago media on speed dial and can direct certain stories (and certain uncomfortable questions) to be buried, shunted aside or ignored.

But what happens when an outside media source is an eyewitness to a story that Shanks desperately doesn't want reaching the masses?

• Last week Friday, I actually witnessed this when I came down to the John Hancock Center to watch the Blue Angels practice in the late afternoon for the weekend's Air Show and then to a dinner cruise on one of the big boats at Navy Pier.
  
  Coming back to the John Hancock to pick up my car at around 9PM, I noticed several little bands of four to five juveniles walking around sizing up people as they walked down the streets. Luckily we were already in our car, but I could sense that these “gangsta wannabes” were up to no good.
  
  There were some arrests made that night but very suspicious that there was no mention in the mainstream media. There have been incidences like this before but never a mention or a caution. Why? Afraid to report on the truth or were you told not to report on the truth? In either case...
  
  WHERE IS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA?
  
  Chicago's media leaves something to be desired when it comes to shining the spotlight on issues like this. It is like Amity Island, the town in the movie Jaws not wanting to reveal that they had a killer shark off the beach because it might kill the season's tourism and town revenues.
  
  Well, the shark-infested area in Chicago is not its Lake Michigan beaches, but the shopping area on and around North Michigan Avenue. Land sharks!
  
  One of my readers, who reads drafts of my columns had this to say:
  
  Succinctly spoken , The city is no longer safe anymore. I think Richard (Mayor Daley) should go out in the evening without his hit squad protecting him with the firearms he professes to hate so much.
  
  That would be six more highly-paid police officers who could patrol the downtown streets that you and I walk down - unarmed.
  
  With its highest big-city sales tax and $30- $50 parking out-of-sight, Chicago better quickly see the light. Watch out for these little predators if you even dare to go down at night. That's when they get into a frenzy to feed, rob and fight.

Blogger James Carlini wrote an essay following Officer Soderberg's death about how needless death was becoming far too common in Chicago. He was visiting for the Air & Water Show and witnessed what we've been writing about for a while now. Shortshanks can't pull the plug on Carlini's observations which are getting wider coverage than we could possibly get with our "insignificant" offerings here. Hopefully, the Age of Daley is coming to an untidy end.

ACLU Files a Winner

Like it or not, the ACLU is probably going to win this one:

• The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois filed a federal lawsuit today against Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez challenging the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, which criminalizes the recording of public conversations with police, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Chicago.
  
  The recordings in this case were created without the consent of the officer and occurred in public places when officers were performing public duties, according to the complaint.

Public employees involved in official duties on the public way? Yeah, even Shortshanks with his mediocre legal education could win this one. It's going to come down to a case-by-case basis. The Department is already videotaping our traffic stops, pursuits and emergency responses and it isn't going away any time soon. We don't like it either, but the ACLU will make a convincing case.

We do imagine that interactions with citizens will plummet to all-time lows though.

Shots Fired at CFD

The recent Supreme Court ruling on being able to keep guns in your home was a correct and proper decision. That being said, an incident like this ought to have the CFD brass rethinking policies and responses to calls:

• An elderly man who apparently thought someone was breaking into his home fired two shots at Chicago Fire department personnel who were checking on his well being early Wednesday in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side.

  The incident occurred at 12:45 a.m. at 6335 S. Rhodes where the fire personnel had gone because a medical emergency bracelet or necklace had activated, prompting the well-being check, according to a Grand Crossing District police Capt. Alberta Raymond.

  No one answered the door, so the crews had taken out a wall air conditioning unit to gain entry to the home when the 93-year-old man inside fired two shots at a firefighter, the captain said.

No doubt Shortshanks will attempt to use this as more "proof" guns shouldn't be in homes. Where's the family that should have been looking out for this guy? In any event, CFD might want to reevaluate their responses to "Check the Well Being." Hell, we might want to reevaluate our responses, too.

• Phone, either via the medical bracelet alert people or our own senior citizen services. Burglar alarm companies have many points of contact for clients and still, we'd estimate 35% or more of the time, we get the "no keyholder available" over the air...fix this;
  
• Infrared cameras to see if there's somebody home. CFD uses similar technology to scan for victims in fires, adapt it for "well being" checks;
• Robots or some sort of micro camera that can be introduced into the house to scan for occupants;
• Hijack phone and cable lines going into the home. If the TV is too loud or the phone is off the hook, it's hard to get someone's attention inside;
  
• Relatives or neighbors with a spare set of keys and phone numbers for other responsible parties - oh wait, that would make sense.

"Fire Refused" is going to become an even more common occurrence for "well-being" checks if the Fire Department is going to get shot at. We wouldn't blame them in the least and we would insist on it becoming policy as soon as possible.

CFD was lucky this time. Luck is a fickle thing.

Three-fer in Englewood - Again

And a warm weekend on tap:

• Three men were shot and wounded, one in the head, tonight in the city's West Englewood neighborhood, Chicago police said.

  The victims, all men in their 20s, were hit by gunfire in the 1600 block of West 62nd Street at about 10 p.m.,

How do we count this one class? That's right - one.

And another thing...did the bozo-puter predict this one?

Another F&%#ing Deficit?

All those lib-tard visitors giving us a hard time since last year about how the Toddler was the only one running a balanced budget the past few years?

Bite us:

• Cook County government faces a $300 million budget shortfall next year, and the Stroger administration suggests that could force across-the-board 10 percent cuts.

  Jaye Williams, the county's chief financial officer, delivered that downbeat news this week to other county financial officials, sources told the Tribune.

  The administration attributes the shortfall to the County Board's decision to cut the sales tax rate by a half percentage point against the wishes of Board President Todd Stroger, who earlier had pushed through a 1 percentage point increase. The county also expects lower federal funding, which had spiked because of economic stimulus efforts.

So between the Toddler, Shanks and Quinn, we're how deep in the hole now, $2 billion? Or more?

Internal Strife

Thank goodness for flies on the walls:

• Stupid Leadership.
  Aunt Bea is sweating a little.
  
  She is wondering if she will end up like Dugan.
  Aunt Bea said that if there is an investigation she will tell the truth about J-Feds driver and the merit list.
  
  Apparently J-Fed "made it clear" that he wanted a few names on the list but only after the list didn't produce what he wanted. J-Fed ordered the Merit Board to reconvene and reevaluate their rankings. The board did the right thing and sent the list back the way it was.
  
  J-Fed was pissed!!!! He sent Aun Bea to do his dirty work and she failed.
  
  Every single member of the board was wondering why they were reevaluating candidates without new or additional information.
  
  J-Fed not only lost control of the Exempts he lost their respect. He is a leader who rules by FEAR.
  
  There may not be a criminal violation here but ethically and morally he F--ked Up.
  
  Signed; A Fly on the Wall

And so the exempt revolution begins. Hopefully.

Worst Performers

We give this a week or so until they pull this completely:

• Chicago Police commanders recently were instructed to make lists of officers with the worst performance in their districts, according to the Fraternal Order of Police.
  
  Officers on the list are subject to a counseling session, the FOP said in a bulletin posted on its website.
  
  Over the last year, officers have undergone evaluations on everything from the number of tickets they write to the number of arrests they make.
  
  But they don't know the standards for winding up on a list of worst performers, FOP President Mark Donahue said.
  
  "That hasn't even been discussed with the union," he said.

So what was the point of the millions spent on the Performance Evaluation System that's been operating for a year or more and all the meetings and gradings and "evaluating" going on to find "problem" officers if Ernie and his staff of morons are just going to order commanders to pick out the "worst performers" without any sort of standards?

J-Fled, rein in your people before they start costing the city more money.

Parking Ticket Excuse

Great quote Dick:

• “Stupidity. It was stupid. Just stupid. Some bureaucrat sent that out,” Daley said at an unrelated news conference. “The revenue department has nothing to do with the police department, period. They [officers] will determine whether you violated a law. No one else can. Especially revenue can’t.”

As a wag pointed out in the comment sections, here's a built-in excuse for contesting tickets written by the Revenue Department. After all, who would know more about what city departments are tasked with enforcing various rules, regulations, policies, procedures, etc., than Shortshanks?

Don't answer that.

How About That Juror?

This is one of the more tremendous jury screw-ups in recent memory:

• Chicago - The search continues to identify the "holdout" juror who, on some counts at least, prevented the Blagojevich jury from reaching unanimous verdicts to convict.

  Jurors who have been interviewed so far will not identify the juror, other than to say the juror was a female.

  FOX Chicago News reported that speculation is centering on juror Jo Ann Chiakulas of Willowbrook, after a second-hand acquaintance said that she has been saying for weeks that she would find Blagojevich not guilty.

  Chiakulas is a retired director from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Really? A juror who's been telling people for weeks she wouldn't convict? And worked for the Illinois DPH?

So is this incompetence on the part of Fitzgerald's Office? Or a plant? Or the most obvious, a coincidence of immense proportions? One has to wonder how forthcoming she was on her jury questionnaire.

Bright Idea

And by "Bright Idea," we mean, "What idiot thought this one up?"

• Midnights in 007 have been warned! We are going to do a new type of patrol to win the streets. Commander Carrothers has decided that burglary/home invasion is the wave of the future in crime fighting. In the CO book there is a memo that states if there is a large party at a home, the R/O's are to arrest the home owner and then to confiscate and inventory their stereo equipment (speakers, turntables, etc.). So, not only will the p.o. now be sued eventually for violation of civil rights, the ASA will actually probably approve burglary charges.
  
  The beat cars are also supposed to make large arrests for disorderly conduct and mob action. I thought mob action got thrown out years ago, but then again I am but a non-clouted P.O. so what would i know. Large crowd, arrest them all. Party, arrest them all. So what if 8 beat cars are down on arrests and the backlog is huge, we are here to get the numbers up so the commander can move up. So what if there is NO backup when an officer is in trouble on a crazy friday or saturday night cause cars are down on these arrests. Blueshirts don't matter. Let them get hurt. As the commander has asked midnight P.O.'s many times: "how many years you got on? 5? I got 25. You haven't done anything." Pissers, drinkers and loud music arrests are the way to go. Guns? Not a "quality of life arrest" even though i'd rather have dude point his turntable at me than a gun, but what do i know. I'm not a child of clout.

We can think of at least fifty ways this can go wrong from the coppers entering the home to confiscating private property unrelated to anything but an Ordinance complaint. We are rapidly approaching (passing?) the "Police at Your Own Risk" point.

While You're Under the Bus...

Check the oil there, will you?

• Mayor Daley suspended his revenue director Tuesday over a memo to the police department warning that ticket writing is down — calling it “stupid.”

  Revenue Director Bea Reyna-Hickey was suspended for a day over the Aug. 10 memo that told police the city “will witness a dramatic decrease in annual revenues and not meet 2010 targets” if a slump in parking tickets and vehicle-compliance tickets continues.

  “Stupidity. It was stupid. Just stupid. Some bureaucrat sent that out,” Daley said at an unrelated news conference. “The revenue department has nothing to do with the police department, period. They [officers] will determine whether you violated a law. No one else can. Especially revenue can’t.”

Shanks is rambling again. Someone up his meds.

One Juror

That's all that stood between Blago and something like 275 years in the clink:

• Jurors were just one vote shy of convicting Rod Blagojevich of the most explosive charge against him: Trying to sell the U.S. Senate Seat left vacant by Barack Obama.
  
  A woman on the jury didn't believe the evidence clearly implicated the former governor, according to Erik Sarnello, 21 of Itasca.
  
  "I think she wanted clear-cut evidence, and not everything was clear-cut," Sarnello said.
  
  The hold-out "just didn't see what we all saw," he added.

Sure she didn't.

Just like no one in the Justice Department saw where this entire case was headed and took down the wire months early.